Yosemite: In the Village

(Continued from Yosemite: Around Cook’s Meadow)

Featured Photo: “Half Dome, Merced River, Autumn (No. 1)” Yosemite National Park, California—2023

Following my sister’s lengthy bus ride through Yosemite Valley and my own extended photo shoot in Cook’s Meadow, we were headed to Yosemite Village; the time we spent there was both enjoyable and informative. In addition to Degnan’s Kitchen—the small, comfortable restaurant where we had coffee in the morning and lunch a bit later—there were a museum, several shops, and the Yosemite Visitor Center and Theater, all located in the Village. We were told a new Visitor Center had been built nearby but was not yet open; the old Center was not open either, as most of its contents were in the process of being moved to the new one. Fortunately, the old Theater was still open and operational, so my sister and I made that our first stop after our coffee break.

The movie was subtle, yet sublime, and when it was over, we compared notes on what we had learned from the simple story it told about Yosemite. We had already learned, from our visit to Mariposa Grove, that some of Yosemite’s Giant Sequoias are thousands of years old—a remarkable timespan by any standard. But it takes a geologic time scale to describe the age of Yosemite’s mountains, peaks, and domes. Rather than forming through volcanic eruption, we learned that the sheer cliffs that make up the walls of Yosemite Valley are essentially a single piece of granite, which formed over hundreds of millions of years from molten rock that cooled and hardened beneath the earth, and were then shaped through the action of tectonic plates and glacial erosion.

We learned the history of people in Yosemite goes back thousands of years when Native Americans first used the area after the Ice Age glaciers receded. The Miwok, or Ahwahneechee Indians, cultivated the land—even employing the beneficial practice of setting fires to encourage the growth of useful plants and to clear the ground beneath the trees. In addition to gathering materials for basket-making, these early inhabitants harvested seeds, berries, and acorns, which they ground into flour for cooking.

And we learned that even though John Muir was instrumental in the creation of Yosemite National Park, he was not the first to advocate for the protection of the natural beauty there. That distinction belonged to others, including Galen Clark, who played a crucial role in the passage of the Yosemite Grant, an Act of Congress signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864—while the nation was embroiled in the Civil War—transferring Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove to the protection of the state of California for “public use, resort, and recreation.”

Clark had settled in the meadowlands of Wawona—an Indian word believed to mean “big tree”—in the 1850’s, near a trail that led to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias in one direction, and to the Yosemite Valley in the other. Following the Yosemite Grant, Clark was selected as the first official guardian of the protected land. The two nature advocates—Clark and Muir (who was more than 20 years Clark’s junior)—met when Muir first visited Yosemite in 1868, four years after the Yosemite Grant. In the years that followed, the two outdoorsmen made frequent sojourns together through Yosemite’s vast wilderness.

Having gained so much knowledge from the movie, we next ventured into the small museum exhibiting the cultural history of Yosemite’s Indians, containing beautiful and functional baskets, an arrowhead-making demonstration, and an outdoor reconstruction of an Ahwahneechee village, complete with bark-covered homes. Back inside, we bought bracelets—hand-made by local Indians—in the museum gift shop.

Continuing our walk through Yosemite Village, we also stopped by the historic Best’s Studio, one of several artists’ studios operating in Yosemite Valley since the turn of the twentieth century, which now serves as the Ansel Adams Gallery, selling books and photographs.

If you look closely, you might recognize the large photo in the studio window as Ansel Adams’ classic image, titled Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada, from Lone Pine, California…

…which I shared in my very first post, noting that Adams was inspirational when I first took up photography. My sister and I enjoyed looking at the impressive photos in the gallery, including a selection of Adams’ original prints. We didn’t buy anything, however; some of his photos were priced in the tens of thousands of dollars!

We found more affordable souvenirs in other shops, first visiting the Village Store, where we each bought a t-shirt…

…and later, in the small bookshop that was still operating inside the old Yosemite Visitor Center, where we found an inspirational book of John Muir’s writings.

We took a break for lunch back at Degnan’s Kitchen, then returned to the old Visitor Center, where Park Rangers were stationed outside in temporary tents, to offer maps and advice in answer to visitors’ questions. I asked for a hiking map of the Yosemite Valley, with particular interest in the Valley Loop Trail. The Ranger confirmed that the trail was flat, but rather long—even the half-loop was nearly seven miles in length and would take three hours to complete. I quickly lost intertest, recognizing that was more than my sister or I could manage.

The Ranger then pointed to several shorter trails: a one-mile loop leading to the Lower Yosemite Fall—the path we had taken earlier that morning—and another one-mile loop that encircled Cook’s Meadow. I let the Ranger know I had planned for us to take that hike the following day and asked for details. She showed me where that trail started and it was only then I realized it was Cook’s Meadow where I spent my time taking pictures earlier, while my sister was on her bus tour. I told my sister we should go to Cook’s Meadow—this time together—since we were already so near; we could hike the entire loop and see all the views it had to offer.

As we started walking together on the trail around Cook’s Meadow, I found myself taking pictures of the same views I had seen in the morning—but the sunlight in the afternoon was so different than the morning, and the images seemed brand new. Comparing the Featured Photo from my previous post…

…to the photo I took just three hours later…

…you can see the trees in the meadow were no longer as distinct; Half Dome’s top was illuminated by the afternoon light, where before it had been in shadows; and the dramatic morning clouds had all but disappeared.

Taking the path for the complete loop took us places I had not seen earlier on my own; I was particularly struck by the arrangement of the sun-bleached log and granite cliffs, captured in this photo.

But my eye kept returning—again and again—to Half Dome, which loomed beyond the meadow, with an array of assorted trees set before it, creating an image that was continually fresh. Looking through all the photos I took of Half Dome during our walk, more than 50 in total—some only a step or two farther along the path than the previous—it was hard to select just a few to share. I did, however, pick three—including one with a view over the Merced River—which seemed especially grand and beautiful to me, attached below, without further commentary.

When we were halfway around the Cook’s Meadow Loop Trail, we reached the parking area for Sentinel Bridge. The hiking map we were following—the one we had picked up from the Park Rangers—said we should “walk out onto the bridge to enjoy a classic view of Half Dome (photographed by Ansel Adams).”

It required a slight detour to get to the bridge, and my sister said she would rather rest. She found a bench near the parking lot to wait while I took the short hike to the bridge, telling me she would be content looking at the pictures after I returned. On this point, she would soon change her mind.

I followed the map’s suggestion and walked out onto the bridge—my first attempt at channeling Ansel Adams—and took one of my best pictures from our hike in Cook’s Meadow, which is today’s Featured Photo. As it turned out, I would return later in the day to capture the same view in another picture that was even better—a photograph I believe to be my best from the entire trip.

(To be continued…)